During a recent class, I discussed rhythm, starting with a passage from Ursula Le Guin’s excellent Steering the Craft, and moving on to Virginia Woolf’s equally excellent explanation: “Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words.” Simple, right? I then read aloud one of my favorite examples of style/rhythm/right words. It’s three paragraphs … [Read more...]
What the Teacher Learned in Class
Building Characters
I was reminded in class the other day of a writing exercise that I call Building Characters. The idea came to me from a chapter in a student’s memoir, about a bus trip her family took in Great Britain and Western Europe in the early 1960s. The group was an intriguing collection of characters—starting with the tour guide, the wonderfully named Mr. Pinchback—and it occurred to me that students could … [Read more...]
From Short Story to Screenplay
I got an email from one of my students last week. A short story she brought to class earlier this year is now a screenplay. Not only that, it is going to become a film. There’s a director, a cast, props, probably even coffee and doughnuts. A little backstory, though, to explain how Pam went from short story to screenplay. Last year Pam brought to class a short story about a suicidal man … [Read more...]
My Writing Classes
A writer I know, Randy Susan Meyers, wrote an interesting blog on her website a few weeks ago called “Writer’s Groups: Don’t Drink and Read.” Randy touches on a variety of issues that resonated with me as a writing teacher, especially since I have encountered a few of the same problems in my classes. So I thought I would make some comments about my writing classes. (I should explain first that … [Read more...]
Constructing a Novel–The Outline
Several months ago I heard John Irving speak at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A few months later I heard Margaret Atwood at the same venue as she read from her latest book and was interviewed. Both authors were engaging and dropped various jewels of insight that readers and writers could grab. Yet I was struck by one difference between them. Many fans of Irving have heard that he … [Read more...]